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Wednesday, January 06, 2010

OAITW: June 6, 1973, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ

Old and in the Way did a small east coast swing in June of 1973, the band's only shows outside of California except for the May 8 show in Eugene and the May 9th show in Portland about which I know nothing. The eastern swing looked like this:

There are some interesting things to say about the other shows, too, but here let me just add two songs to the known setlist from the June 6th show: Lonesome L.A. Cowboy in the 2nd set (probably late); Blue Mule to end the show. These come from a review by John Swenson in the "Riffs" colum of the Village Voice, June 14, 1973, p. 60 (available from Google News). I am happy about this because I had noted on my latest copy of the recording of the show as follows: "Unless someone knows otherwise, it would seem that the show continued after Wild Horses. This tape contains a full two minutes of tuning at the end, before cutting out on Grisman saying something ("I'd like to call on the Old and in the W//")." These two songs should be added to the end of the setlist at the Jerry Site.

As noted on the setlists and such, Tex Logan sits in on fiddle at the end of set I. Bonus Question: does anyone know this man's birthdate? I am quite desperate to know it (including year) for reasons that I'll make clear if I ever discover it.

There was a story floating around that Garcia had played at Tex's 50th birthday party, Tex's backyard BBQ in Madison, NJ. Given the info we have here, that would have been June 6, 1977. Can you shed any light?

He did play with arcia several times but I never remember 50th BD party with him. He had many big parties throughout 60's and 70's with Bill Monroe on an annual basis with about 150-200 people attending...Peter Rowan,Richard Green, all of the big bluegrass guys of times and lots of rock and rollers....Jerry wasn't at those parties

Do you know of any specific dates besides the June 6 (Boston) and 8 (Warrenton) shows at which Tex and Jerry might have played together?

BTW, the story of Tex's 50th birthday was like 4th-5th hand to me ... it went like this: a lady living in the Madison, NJ house in which Tex lived until 1994 heard from neighbors that Jerry had played at the 50th bday bash. She told someone, who posted the info somewhere. So, hardly firm provenance, but an intriguing possibility nonetheless!

Here's an article about it:By Chuck AllenTemple University AmblerFor 13 years, the music played on.

In 1968, the Temple University Music Festival and Institute was born. The university had recognized that the growth of performing arts could become an asset. But it was looking for an effective way to tie that growth into its educational mission. So when Temple decided to open the Music Festival and Institute, it was with two goals in mind.First, the Institute would serve as a school for young professional musicians. Close to 300 students from across the country enrolled that first year. Private instruction was offered to these budding musicians. In addition, students often performed at recitals helping them become accustomed to performing on stage. This Institute would serve as a center for discovering and training musicians and talent for many years to come.Second, the university would hold an annual summer music festival. This would be to display the talented performers from the institute, as well as bring in other talented musicians from across the country. The home of the festival was to be the newly completed amphitheater, a 3,000-seat outdoor facility located behind Temple University Ambler’s commuter lot on Meetinghouse Road. The 500-seat Campus Theater (located at the back of the campus) was used for smaller events, such as chamber music and several institute concerts.The university was ready to show off its new and impressive investment. Now, it just hoped the community would understand the importance of it."Large universities have become a home for the performing arts," said Dr. David L. Stone, then Dean of the College of Music, "and the community as a whole must understand the performing arts contribution to community welfare."Temple’s message was heard loud and clear. The festival’s first session ran from June 24 until August 4, 1968. It was billed as "42 Evenings of Musical Excellence," and excellence it did produce. That first session saw nationally known acts such as Ella Fitzgerald, Van Cliburn, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington take the stage. As word of the festival began to spread, audiences grew larger and larger for each performance. Ticket prices ranged from $2 for student recitals to as much as $7 for the national acts.After the close of the first session, the festival was deemed a huge success. International musicians were making their American debuts at Temple. National musicians were lining up to play. The institute was helping music students further develop their talents. Temple could not have envisioned a better start.A small message in their 1968 brochure may have stated their optimism about the future of the festival: "It is Temple University’s anticipation that the quality of this Festival and Institute will become a matter of pride for the State of Pennsylvania."

The ten seasons of the Music Festival produced the same results. It became the summer home of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The Pennsylvania Ballet made regular appearances on stage. Student recitals became more regular. But the festival did not lose its national appeal either.The amphitheater would host the likes of Herbie Mann, Joan Baez, the Four Seasons, and the return of Ella Fitzgerald. It would also help to boost the early careers of performers like Dionne Warwick, Johnny Mathis and comedian Bill Cosby. It would later showcase then-popular national acts like the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).The festival had developed into exactly what Temple had hoped it would. In addition to entertaining thousands and thousands of people, it was bringing the university tons of national and international exposure. People were traveling hundreds of miles to perform or watch a show. These visitors would end up leaving with a favorable impression of the university, and especially the Ambler Campus. James M. Shea, then Vice-President for University Relations, would later suggest that the Music Festival and Institute might be partly responsible for the growth of the campus.However, in early 1980, The Medium (the Ambler Campus newspaper) reported the Music Festival and Institute was facing an uncertain future. It reported the festival had been losing money for many years in a row. Teri Ceraso, then-Business Manager for the Festival, announced that efforts to increase outside funding of the Festival were ongoing. It was their hope that an increase in private donations would allow the Festival to continue on.But later that year, then-Temple University President Marvin Wachman announced that for the first time in 14 years, the Festival would be shut down. It was now a growing financial burden, and the university needed to cut money to keep some tenured faculty positions. Before the Board of Trustees voted to officially shut it down, the university explored several options to attempt to keep the Festival running. Nothing could be worked out. The university did, however, appoint a panel to study possible future use of the Festival.Around the same time, the Valley Forge Music Festival filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging that Temple (a non-profit, non-taxed subsidized entity) was “unfair competition.” It charged that the university was illegally using state funds intended for educational purposes to produce the Festival. The university denied the charges, but the lawsuit was later dropped. That was due to the 1981 announcement from the university that the Festival was "dead."

"The Festival is dead," said Shea in the November 18, 1981 issue of The Medium. "It did not run last season and there are no immediate plans for this year or the future."Raymond C. Whittaker, then-Director of Public Relations for the Festival and campus, would later state the Festival was in serious debt from 13 seasons of performances. Studies revealed there was simply not enough public funding to continue. Many were saddened by the announcement. Whittaker would later say he thought the Festival was "the greatest thing Temple University had going for it…and I don’t know if anything can replace it." Then-Ambler Campus Dean Sydney Halpern stated the Festival had helped build Temple’s image in the community.It would be a few years before talk of reviving the Festival began. In 1984, then-Acting Dean Walter Gershenfeld was interested in getting the Festival back up and running. Then-Temple University President Peter Liacouras appointed a feasibility committee to look into restarting the Festival. Next, new Ambler Dean James Blackhurst continued inquiring about the revival in 1985, but stated that Temple was taking a cautious approach. Meetings and committees would meet off and on again for the next few years, but the university simply couldn’t justify reopening the Festival. By then, the amphitheater had been vacant for many years and just the cleaning and maintenance of the building would have been tremendously costly.In 1990, a group called the Temple Arts Festival Committee formed. Made up of community members from Upper Dublin, the committee attempted to raise enough money to once again conduct a feasibility study on resurrecting the Festival. Just a few years later, however, a fire ravaged the amphitheater, rendering the building unusable.The fire may have destroyed the physical remnants of the Music Festival and Institute, but the spirit of it lives on. In the time the festival did run, it helped bring a university respect, and helped build a campus' reputation. There is still a lingering sound though. That is the sound of the opportunity the Ambler Campus provides. The same opportunity it provided the young musicians. The same opportunity it provides for the students today.The Music Festival and Institute may be gone, but for some, it will never be forgotten.And the music will always play on.

... Ryan sent me this a few years back:Hi Ryan-I was looking up a June 11, 1973 concert date I attended and found it on your great site. However, the change that was made does not jive with my experience. The venue for the show below was definitely the outdoor concert venue of the Temple University - Ambler Campus. The "Ambler Theater" is an indoor venue where other Dead spin-off bands may perhaps have played, but there is no way that this show was played there. I was finishing up a year at Temple University main campus at the time and it was undoubtedly how I saw the announcement for the show. The Drummer was Philadelphia's version of an underground newspaper and the best source of any music show information. If the person who suggested the change was just guessing about the venue, I would recommend returning it to the previous site. Anyway, there you go, FWIW!